


Another One Bites the Dust

by Scedasticity



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Game Over Timeline, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 00:58:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15830475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scedasticity/pseuds/Scedasticity
Summary: After Rose dies in the Land of Pyramids and Neon...





	Another One Bites the Dust

**Author's Note:**

> Written and posted on tumblr _immediately_ after Rose died in the Land of Pyramids and Neon, not very long at all after [S] Game Over, before the retcon was even a twinkle in Terezi's eye. I never cleaned it up because, well, it was immediately and severely jossed. ~~But seriously nothing here WAS ever properly addressed by canon so here it is anyway.~~

Her teen alt mom blurs out of sight as her eyes drift closed…

* * *

"Aw, fuck, you too?"

"Rose!"

She opens her eyes in time to see Dave and Kanaya both try to lean over her and clonk heads. One of Kanaya's horns knocks Dave's shades off.

(After three years of shitty road trip through the afterlife, she's more than used to white eyes, but not on them.)

" _You_ too?" she says to Dave, because clearly she wasn't paying enough attention. "What happened?" She accepts Kanaya's hand to sit up, and then pulls her into a hug.

"Jack. You?"

"Her Imperious Condescension." Rose rubs at the phantom ache in her chest. "Although it wasn't immediately fatal."

"What he _fails_ to mention is that he is dead because he _picked a fucking swordfight_ with Jack and Bleached Jack, to protect Jade, _who was already fucking dead_."

"At least he didn't roll up his--"

"Loser bulgeblisters who wussed out of doing anything fucking meaningful in favor of fluttering around dreambubbles with their creepyperky fairy girlfriends _do not get opinions_." Sounds like death hasn't mellowed Karkat at all. "And at least I'm not dressed like a pirate."

"It's actually purretty fun--"

Rose lifts her head from Kanaya's shoulder to look around. They're on a broad platform -- from the surroundings, the top of some sort of troll high rise, though the landscape below the buildings has too many fishbowls to be anything but a Land. There's Karkat, Sollux with red and blue eyepatches, Tavros holding a telescope for some reason, two troll girls in considerably more pirate costume-- "Nepeta, right? And Feferi?" Their alpha versions weren't around in the dream bubbles -- sprite prototyping was the usual theory.

"Affurrmative!" Nepeta says cheerfully.

"Nice to fin-ally meet you," Feferi adds. "Wish it cod be under better circumstances, but! Cod be worse."

Somehow, Rose can tell Karkat is rolling his eyes. "Yes, Lord English could be eating us at this fucking moment."

"Jade?" she asks.

"Not here," Dave says shortly. "But her pantsless grandpa is, along with John's hot mom." He waves at a couple of humans huddled on the other side of the platform from the dead -- the _dead-for-a-while-now_ troll group. They're too far apart to be considered huddled _together_.

…He's not kidding about the pants. Lack of pants.

"I _told_ you, sir, the name is _Jake_ ," the pantsless boy says. "And leave Jane alone, she's having a hard time."

Rose nods politely. "Jake. Jane." Jane has her knees pulled up and her face buried in her hands. "Mind control hangover?"

"And feeling a little awkward about _killing me_ ," Karkat says pointedly. He jumps a mile when Feferi prods him in the shoulder with a pitchfork -- beg pardon, 2x3dent -- and hastily adds, "Not that I'm saying anyone should feel responsible for their actions under mind control in any way."

…There's a story there, but this may not be the time to ask. She looks around again. "Terezi?" She doesn't see Gamzee, either, but she's not about to ask about him.

"No sign of her," Kanaya says. "She may not be dead. She got clear of the blast…"

"I know -- she tried to get Aranea, but I didn't see what happened next. I… went up against the Empress at about the same time, and I passed out when I was injured." Rose hopes Terezi fared better than she did, but… "I didn't see her when I woke up briefly. I saw my -- mother, my teen mother. And John. They seemed all right."

"You didn't happen to see Dirk, did you?" Pantsless Grandpa Jake ventures. "I mean -- Dirk Strider?"

Rose shakes her head. "But I wasn't awake very long."

"I don't, um, know about the other Strider," Tavros says, lowering the telescope. "But I think, Terezi may have had, some success? _Someone_ kicked Aranea, back here, and the other two, at least when I saw, don't make her, um, lose her composure like she is."

He's been looking off into the distance, where you can just see two orange-yellow-blue dots and one beige-fuchsia dot flying around in crazy circles. There's an occasional flash of light from one to another, and sometimes they bump into each other. It's hard to tell without the telescope, but it looks like one of the orange-yellow-blue dots is being pursued by the other two.

There's a red dot off to the side, spectating.

Jake perks up a little. "Are they heading in this direction? I feel like this could be very therapeutic."

"Oohhh, I know what to do!" Nepeta says. She holds out a hand, and a bucket of popcorn appears in it. "Roxy liked to alchemize this."

Rose knows they should try to find Jade, and see if Jane _wants_ to talk to anyone, and see if they can find out the status of Terezi and Dirk Strider, and keep an eye out for Gamzee, and _Lord English_ , and she needs to talk to Dave to figure out for sure if this is a doomed timeline, but…

"Hand me some of that," she says. "And can I borrow the telescope?"


End file.
